Past tense of goof; made a silly mistake or acted foolishly.
From 'goof', American slang from the 1920s, possibly from dialectal 'goff' meaning 'silly person' or influenced by 'gouf', a variant of 'golf' used to describe a bungling stroke. The word originally meant a foolish person before becoming a verb.
Goof is wonderfully onomatopoetic - the sound itself suggests something bumbling and harmless. Unlike words like 'error' or 'mistake,' 'goofed' carries a sense of endearing clumsiness rather than serious failure, making it perfect for describing minor social blunders.
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